I am an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Howard University, where I work on American constitutionalism, civil and voting rights, federalism, and slavery and abolition. I hold a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Pennsylvania.

My first book, Hidden Laws: How State Constitutions Stabilize American Politics, was published in 2021 by Yale University Press. Using datasets and historical case studies, the book argues that high barriers to national constitutional change have encouraged reformers to instead seek state constitutional revision, addressing national controversies over economic and labor regulations and voting, civil, and gender rights. I am writing a second book, on constitutional hardball, as a 2022 Kluge Fellow at the Library of Congress.

My research is also published or forthcoming in The Journal of Politics, Polity, Perspectives on Politics, Studies in American Political Development, The Maryland Law Review, The Nebraska Law Review, and The Tulsa Law Review, The Atlantic, and The Washington Post.